Politically Direct: Jim Phillips talks transparency, property tax

NORRISTOWN — “We have to make it affordable for everybody to live in an area,” Jim Phillips, the Republican candidate to represent the 70th District in the state House of Representatives, said when he recently sat down with Times Herald editor Stan Huskey for an installment of Politically Direct.

Phillips earned the nomination as a write-in candidate, securing more than twice the required 300 votes to get on the ballot; he will oppose the incumbent Rep. Matt Bradford, who is seeking a third term as the representative for the 70th District.

Getting involved in politics is nothing new for Phillips, who currently serves on the school board for the Methacton School District and believes that transparency is vitally important for any political body.

“There is nothing embarrassing about the information,” Phillips said. “We all make decisions based on the facts and information we have before us and because (local governments) are there to serve the people, I never could understand why they would hold stuff back from the public. I’ve been a very big advocate of transparent government.”

In addition, Phillips believes that making changes to property tax is the most important issue facing citizens and new legislation is needed in order to keep people in their homes and able to live comfortably.

“I’ve talked to people since this past June and even beforehand being on the school board. People are at a point where they can’t afford to live in their houses,” said Phillips. “We’ve used words like reform. We have to reform property tax but our elected officials have turned that into a dirty word.”

In response to the growing property tax issues, Phillips threw his support behind the basic ideology of HB 1776, which would eliminate property tax, replacing that revenue with an increased sales tax and increased income tax. However, he went on to suggest several alterations that would make the bill more feasible.

“What I would need to vote on it is that the property tax would be removed when we passed it or on a set date, not that it would be removed over a period of time,” Phillips said. “Our elected officials have promised that they are going to phase things out and we get halfway through phasing it out and they realize that they can’t curb their spending and they start raising that tax back up. Meanwhile, they’ve increased taxes elsewhere and overall, we just pay more taxes. That’s why I said ‘reform’ is a dirty word and we have to use words like ‘eliminate.’”

Phillips also spoke about the importance of funding education in Montgomery County by keeping tax dollars generated by county in the county, which would be vital to potentially closing the gap between wealthy and struggling school districts.

“If you look at Pennsylvania, we have Philadelphia County, Pittsburgh, and they are real high-density areas,” Phillips explained. “You have up through the center and across the top (of Pennsylvania) where it’s not built up as much commercially, so there’ s not as much sales tax revenue and earned income. The problem is whether Montgomery County ends up supporting all these other schools and counties.”

Finally, Phillips offered an opinion on the controversial Voter ID law, which was ruled to be legal but was put on hold for the upcoming election by a judge in the Commonwealth Court, stating he supported both the bill and the decision by the court.

“We don’t need another Florida where the election is contested because there are thousands of people saying they couldn’t vote for one reason or another. Now that it’s been in the press so much and everybody knows about it, we can work towards getting those people an ID,” said Phillips. “I think it’s important to protect the process.”

Phillips closed out the interview by explaining why he deserves to be elected and what changes constituents could expect.

“We have to stop business as usual in Harrisburg and locally and I will be a strong voice,” said Phillips. “I will get out there and make sure that there is change.”